Production of Multiply Charged Argon Ions in Moderate Nanosecond Laser Fields: An Open Question or a Forgone Conclusion?

We reply to the Viewpoint by Vatsa and Mathur on our publication reporting the observation of multiply charged atomic ions from argon clusters doped with aromatic chromophores in a moderate nanosecond laser field. Vatsa and Mathur raised three concerns about the proposed explanation and offered additional ideas for the reported process. We agree with some of their concerns and welcome the addition of information, and we also clarify a few misunderstandings of our intention, perhaps caused by our implicit assumption of contextual relations. While the experimental results are indisputable, the interpretation is still a topic of debate, subject to further experimental investigations and theoretical modeling.